Opening Act: Hoodie

The Red White and Blue Fund ended February with just $365,000 in the bank, according to the most recent campaign filing. Santorum’s campaign had $2.6 million cash on hand at the end of last month after raising $9 million in its most successful month for fundraising. The super PAC and campaign say they’ve continued to bring in big checks this month, but their cash reserves likely still pale in comparison to Romney’s.

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In retrospect, this edition of Morning Fix was Rumsfeldian in its lack of foresight.

Romney won the majority of counties in western Mississippi, just off the north and central Louisiana border. If he can come close to that on Saturday, he will probably have won his first Southern state.

Not really, no! Meanwhile, Tim Fernholz offers a usable history of hoodies.

[A]cross the Atlantic, the hooded sweatshirt has a similar association but with a far less positive social message. In the United Kingdom, the hoodie is also associated with low-income young people up to no good—but there, in response to public agita about crime, politicians from both sides of the political aisle—including former Prime Minister Tony Blair—have endorsed campaigns to ban hooded sweatshirts from public places in an effort to combat what the British call “anti-social behavior.” Talk about treating the symptoms instead of the disease!

Julian Sanchez reconstructs a possible version of the Trayvon tragedy.

This is, obviously, complete speculation, but as far as I can tell, it’s consistent with the public facts—and with the general principle that fear and stupidity are more common than malice. If it’s accurate, both parties would have honestly believed they were acting in self defense. And, incidentally, the “Stand Your Ground” law wouldn’t appear to be relevant, because neither of them would have regarded retreat as a viable option at the time they reasonably believed themselves to be threatened. Again, I think it clearly ought to fall to a jury to figure out whether this is what happened—or at least a believable possibility, once all the evidence is on the table. But I figured it was worth throwing out this scenario as a reminder that we should insist on justice for Trayvon Martin without insisting that we’re certain in advance what that means. We need a real investigation and a trial—not a particular verdict.